Part 1: Madison Bumgarner's epic World Series Finish (cont.) Part 2: Kevin Maas 7/19/18

Part 1: (continuation of 7/17/18)

Then, the video comes backs to the picture of the last at-bat. Perez has already been a hero this postseason, hitting a walk-off single in the Wild Card game versus the A's. But Perez was drilled earlier this game and it has to hurt, so KC wishes Gordon could have scored another way. Gordon hit what looked like a harmless single, but Gregor Blanco botched it and it rolled all the way to the wall. Gordon got to third, but he had a chance of scoring because the ball was just getting into the cutoff man(Brandon Crawford) as Gordon jogged to third, and it could have been an insane inside-the-park-HR. But he stopped at third and Perez is at the plate. The pitcher is Madison Bumgarner, who has been insane this postseason. He is approaching 50 innings pitched, which would be an MLB record. So Bochy was risking it by putting Bumgarner in relief to try and shut down KC for the rest of the game. He also made another move by putting defensive specialist Juan Perez in left instead of Travis Ishikawa, SF's NLCS hero(he hit the walk-off HR to send the Giants to the WS). Ishikawa was a terrible defensive player so Bochy wanted no errors in this game 7. Bumgarner started off terrible, giving up a leadoff single, and the runner advanced on a sac bunt. Then came Nori Aoki for KC. With a runner in scoring position, Aoki hit what looked like an RBI single, but Juan Perez made a smooth running catch to save the day. Then Bumgarner got into a groove and retired the next 13 batters until Alex Gordon's hit. The video ends with Perez hitting the pop-up and the Giants win the 2014 World Series.

Part 2:

I am continuing to read "Why Everything You Know About Baseball Is Wrong". The chapter I am reading is called "Why Was Kevin Maas a Bust?" The chapter starts off with the explanation of who Kevin Maas is. Maas broke onto the scene in 1990, hitting 10 home runs in 77 at-bats. This made Maas the fastest ever to hit 10 home runs, and he would be the fastest to hit 13 and 15 home runs as well. Maas was a 22nd round pick who could do two things: hit home runs and draw walks. He would end up hitting 21 home runs despite only playing 79 games. The next year, he struggled, but the Yankees just continued playing because they were having their third straight losing season. He lost his starting job in 1992 and was eventually released. I actually disagree with the fact that Maas was a bust because not many thought of him as a top prospect. He was a 22nd round pick after all. I will end it here because the rest of the chapter will be covered in the next blog because it is very long and complicated.

Part 1: Madison Bumgarner's epic World Series finish, Part 2: Why Four Man Rotation is better than a Five Man Rotation 7/18/18

Part 1:

I am watching a video called: Rewinder: Madison Bumgarner's epic World Series finish deserves a deep rewind | 2014 Giants-Royals Game 7. This video talks about Madison Bumgarner 2014 playoffs and the Giants won it all that year. The video starts with a picture of the last at-bat, Bumgarner vs Salvador Perez, with Alex Gordon on third base. But first, the video has an explanation of why Game 7 of the WS is in Kansas City. The reason is that the AL won the All-Star game due to Adam Wainwright throwing meatballs to Derek Jeter. The reason Wainwright was throwing meatballs was that 2014 was Jeter's last year before retirement. Wainwright was simply paying tribute, and Jeter hit one of those meatballs for a double. The double lead to a big rally, and the AL eventually won the game 5-3. But this actually helped the Giants because they were able to play with the DH. The DH for game 7 was Michael Morse, who has driven 2 of the 3 runs, one on a sac fly with the bases loaded, and the other with some help with KC's stadium. Playing at Kansas City helped because of the wet grass. Pablo Sandoval hit a little groundball to Omar Infante, who slipped on the wet grass and Sandoval got a base hit. Then, because of KC's deep outfield walls, Sandoval tagged on a ball to left field and got to third. Then Michael Morse drove him in with a bloop single to break the 2-2 tie. The other run came from a Brandon Crawford sac fly. KC could have more runs, but the recently expanded replay helped out the Giants. With a man on first and no outs, Eric Hosmer hit what looked like would become a first and third situation. But Joe Panik made a diving play and turned two, but Hosmer was called safe. But Bruce Bochy challenged the call and it was overturned, shutting down a potential rally. I will continue this story tomorrow since it is really long.

Part 2:

I am continuing to read "Why Everything You Know About Baseball Is Wrong". The chapter I am reading is about why a four-man pitching rotation is better than a five-man pitching rotation. The first argument is the stats (ERA, win percentage, SO rate, HR/inning, opposing BA, innings pitched) is in favor of four-man rotation, with them having an edge in almost every statistic. Another argument is obviously, your four best pitchers are going to be better than your five best pitchers because for most teams, the fifth starter is average at best or well below average at worst. The third argument is the manager gets an extra roster spot with the subtraction of the number 5 starter, which could be a fast runner or power bat off the bench. The most recent team to try a four-man rotation is the 1995 Kansas City Royals. They started off well, but eventually went downhill due to terrible decisions by the manager. The manager often let the four starters go too deep into games, which broke down the starters arms, and the Royals were pretty much doomed to fail. Overall, this chapter was very interesting and the next chapter I am going to read is about drafting high school players.

Part 1: Jeremy Lin- Linsanity, Part 2: Closers(Baseball Prospectus) 7/19/18

Part 1:

Today, I watched a short documentary on Jeremy Lin. The documentary talks about how he is the only player in the NBA with a Harvard degree. How he was cut by two teams who "wanted him", only to get a call from the Knicks to help save their season. The Knicks were underachieving by a lot so they gave a chance to Jeremy Lin. In his first few games, he did super well and made the world go Linsane. In an upcoming Lakers vs Knicks, Kobe was asked about Jeremy Lin, and Kobe said he didn't even know who that was. Then, Jeremy scored 36 points and 7 assists. Jeremy is now thriving with the Nets(who just traded him to the Hawks two days ago) and very good player.

Part 2:

I am reading a book called "Why Everything You Know About Baseball Is Wrong". I am currently in chapter 2-2, "Are Teams Letting Their Closer Go to Waste?". I'm not going to lie, I don't understand all the fancy stats they are talking about, but I do understand what they are trying to say. The main idea is that closers are less valuable when managers put them in situations like 3 run lead, 9th inning, and should instead put them in high leverage situations like runners in scoring position in a tight game. The chapter talks a lot about Win Expectancy, ERA, and Leverage. They are a lot of good examples to make it easier to understand and so far, I really like this book.

7/13/18

Part 1:

Today, all I watched were some mlb the show streams so I am gonna talk about a Netflix show I watched. I watched "The Flash" season 2 episode four: "The Fury of Firestorm". The episode is about Martin Stein, who invented the Firestorm matrix, which when combined with a partner, allows the person to have fire powers. But Stein's partner died saving the world, so he got very unstable. The episode is about picking between to people to decide who will be the next Firestorm. 

Part 2: 

Today was the last day of PALY science camp. Today was all about forensics. The conselours made up a fake "crime". The crime was there were six suspects who could have stolen the golden chicken. There were three different stations: powder, fibers, and fingerprints. We analyzed the powders and fibers, which were both found on the crime scene. The fingerprints were found on certain objects. Every piece of analysis was a clue to who did it. We said it was suspect 1 and 2, which was correct. The last thing we did was a raffle. I did not win anything but one of the prizes was getting to pie one of the conselours, which was very funny.

7/11/18

Part 1:

Today, I watched a video called "Shaq's 10-year beef with David Robinson included the pettiest 71-point game and one huge lie". The video talks about the fighting between Shaq and David Robinson from the early 1990's to the early 2000s. The beef started when during the 1994 All-Star, normally a fun, slow game, the West all-star team conspired to destroy Shaq. They held Shaq to 2-12 shooting, and Shaq promised he would have his revenge. Then, when Shaq played Robinson and the Spurs, he did well, scoring 32 points and 11 rebounds. But Robinson scored 36 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 blocks, and 3 steals, which is ridiculous. The San Antonio crowd yelled MVP, and Shaq got pissed, saying he was the real MVP. But Robinson's teammates told him David played a way better game. Then, Shaq told the media everyone was jealous of him, and Robinson laughed at the idea. The next part of the beef happened when Shaq was going to lead the NBA in points in his second year. He was leading Robinson by 33 points and Robinson and the Spurs knew this. They gave him the ball, possession after possession until David put up 71 points, and the scoring title. For a little while, the beef cooled down, and when Shaq dunked on Robinson in the All-Star game, nothing really happened. Then, Shaq joined the Western Conference and the Lakers, meaning they would face each other in the playoffs often. But Robinson was getting old and Tim Duncan was the new face of the franchise. The big lie from the title was Shaq said David Robinson refused Shaq an autograph when Shaq was a kid. But this story was fake and was a way to fuel Shaq with anger. This was an awesome video.

Part 2:

Today, I went to the PALY Science camp, and we did two different activities. The first activity we did was called copper plating a key. We clipped two wires to a key and a strip of copper. The wires were clipped to a battery and we submerged the key and copper in copper sulfate. The copper plated the key but because I didn't submerge the key all the way and the key was super clean, the copper looked a little weird. Since it looked weird, I just rubbed off the copper. The second activity was dissecting an owl pellet. The owl pellet was the size of a golf ball and is a mixture of hair and bones. My partner and I found two rodent heads along with a bunch of tiny bones. Then, we had a competition. If you eat one of the owl pellets, you would get five lottery tickets. It was super disgusting, so I didn't do it, but 4 kids did.

7/10/18

Part 1:

Today, I watched a video called "Beef History: Larry Johnson's beef with Alonzo Mourning included a sad Hornets mural and a weird Knicks-Heat fight". The story talks about the Larry Johnson vs Alonzo Mourning's fight in the playoffs. At the beginning of that year, Knicks coach Pat Riley left New York to join Miami. This led to 4 straight playoffs where the Knicks played the Heat and there were a lot of fights, leading to a lot of suspensions. But the real reason Johnson and Mourning were fighting was because of something that happened in the past. Both had been top two draft picks by the Hornets and they seemed like a young, unstoppable duo. But it turns out they had a lot of beef between them, mainly concerning the fact that Johnson got a 12 year, 84 million dollar contract, the biggest contract up to that point. But Mourning thought he was better and so he demanded a $13 million dollar contract. Charlotte was unwilling to pay this, so they trade Mourning, and since a big mural of Mourning was on the biggest skyscraper in Charlotte, it was really awkward and they had to repaint it with Hugo the Hornet, Charlotte's mascot. Eventually, Johnson was traded as well and that led to the big fight. I really liked this video and will enjoy watching the rest of these.

Part 2:

Today, I went to the PALY Science camp, and we did five different activities. The first activity we did was called Magnetic Goo. We put water in a bowl and put Borax in the water. Then, we put glue in the water and it became "goo". The reason it is called Magnetic Goo is because we mixed iron oxide in the goo, and we used strong magnets to manipulate the goo. The second activity was with Bunsen burners. We dipped a cue tip in different kinds of chemicals and we changed the color of the flame. The third activity was dissolving styrofoam. We discussed how things dissolved and for the experiment, we put acetone on styrofoam, which dissolved the styrofoam. The fourth activity was putting flowers and balloons in liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen freezes the flowers and when you smash it against the ground or a wall, the flowers shatter like glass. The fifth activity was called "Elephant Toothpaste". The counselor put dish soap, iodine, and another chemical to make a big explosion of stuff that looks like toothpaste.

7/9/18

Part 1:

Today, I was watching a video called "'The Rebuild' | A Documentary Based on How the Cubs Won it All". It's an interesting documentary about how the Cubs were a terrible team and then turned into World Series Champions. The documentary starts in 2011 and obviously ends with their WS championship in 2016. The documentary talks about all their trades, free agency signings, front office moves, etc. I haven't finished all of it yet and I am currently at the end of the 2014 season.

Part 2:

Today was the first day of PALY Science and Engineering Camp. It was fun for the most part and my favorite part was the games. If you won games, you got raffle tickets which you can put in the raffle at the end of the week. I think the raffle prize is getting to put a pie in a counselor's face. Some of the games included a kahoot(electronic quiz) and a science jeopardy game. For your camp, I think you should play more games and give out prizes. As for what prizes to give out, every kid likes candy so that should probably be the prize.

7/8/18

Part 1:

On Friday, I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp. The movie plot was a little boring because they was no real "bad guy". The Ghost girl was just trying to be normal, and Sonny Burch had no powers. Because Sonny Burch had no powers, it didn't really feel like he was that dangerous. Also, it definitely seems like more than half the world is being Thanosed. The only people left to restore the world is Ant-Man, Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, War Machine, Okoye, M'baku, Rocket, and Nebula. I think Ant-Man was sent in the Quantum Realm for a reason and will be a pivotal part in restoring the world.

Part 2:

I am currently reading "The unwritten rules of America's Pastime". It is a very interesting book about how to slide properly, when to hit people, stealing signs, etc. I am currently on a chapter "Don't Talk About a No-Hitter in Progress." The author talks about the superstition behind it and also examples like when Sandy Koufax threw his no-hitter, when Randy Johnson threw his perfect game". They also talk about when people do talk about a no-hitter in progress, the no-hitter is normally broken up. For example, when broadcaster Rex Barber talked about the Dodgers having no hits in the World Series because Bill Bevens was no-hitting then, the no-hitter was broken up and the Dodgers won the game.

7/6/18

Part 1:

I watched a video called "How to break in a baseball glove". He wrapped up the glove tightly and then wrapped it in a towel. Then he ran it over with his truck a few times, and it seemed to work. But I looked in the comments and while some people said it worked, many said the person in the video was ruining the glove. I will probably not run over my glove with a car because I don't want to ruin my glove.

Part 2:

I am reading a book called "Why Everything You Know About Baseball Is Wrong". It is one of those Baseball Prospectus books that talk a lot about sabermetrics and stuff like that. But I disagree with the book because it says stats like batting average and RBIs don't matter and OBP and other fancy stats do. If someone is hitting .300 with 100 RBIs, he's having a good season, I don't need to know his OBP or other weird sabermetric stats. Walking isn't that good because if you're a middle of the order guy, you are getting on base for the bottom of the order, and you probably won't score.